Previously: Maryland Offense 

Yesterday we looked at Maryland's offense, today we turn to the defensive side of the ball. The Terrapin defense has had an odd season, strong efforts against teams like Ohio State and Indiana but then getting ripped apart by the likes of Illinois and  Northwestern. How to evaluate this confusing unit? That's our task today: 

The Film: Just as we did with the offense, we are selection Maryland vs. Ohio State. It's the best offense Maryland has faced and being one of their best outings, it is again upholding the rule of scouting an opponent at their best. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Maryland rolls with a pair of defensive tackles and then a pair of lighter EDGEs in the 260-265 range as their base front. They typically put out two ILBs against passing formations but they can put out a 260 lb. SLB against two TE sets, which can mimic a five-man front, so expect that to feature against Michigan. Their starting tackles are Jordan Phillips and Tommy Akingbesote, both in that 310 lb. range, and those two players have held up better than I expected this season, with a particularly strong game against Ohio State. Their backups, Tre Colbert, Taisze Johnson, and Isaac Bunyun, are definitely a step down, with Johnson getting the cyan and I didn't think Colbert was great either. 

The EDGE situation is a bit different from last season, when there was a clear distinction between a 290 lb. DE and a 260 lb. JACK. This season they're both JACK-shaped, Quashon Fuller being the "DE" in that he never lines up away from the line or drop into coverage, but he's not any different in size from the WDE/JACK types. There also isn't much distinction between the WDE and the SLB, as those two spots were pretty interchangeable when both were on the field against Ohio State. The names filling those spots are Kellan Wyatt, Riyad Wilmot, and Donnell Brown. Brown is a favorite of PFF's, though he didn't stand out much in the Ohio State tape. 

At the linebacker position, two familiar faces return for Maryland in MLB Jaishawn Barham and WLB Ruben Hyppolite II. Barham was a very green starter last season, paddling away as a true freshman at the toughest position on the defense and he handled the job with surprising success. This season he has remained a strong blitzer and run defender but has struggled in coverage, averaging out to a decent but not star-level bottom line. Hyppolite next to him has long been part of a rotation of characters trying to fill a perpetually weak hole in the defense, splitting snaps with another old name, Fa'Najae Gotay and sophomore Caleb Wheatland. 

Maryland graduated a couple excellent corners to the NFL last season, replacing them with Cincinnati transfer Ja'Quan Sheppard and nickel/HSP Glendon Miller, in addition to rolling over starting corner Tarheeb Still. The results from the pass defense have been pretty Jekyll and Hyde depending on the week, but Still has generally been Maryland's best corner. Corey Coley Jr., the fourth corner option, has been the weakest. At safety the Terps have an upperclassmen tandem of Beau Brade and Dante Trader Jr., with Brade being the player I singled out for having the best day against Ohio State and getting the star, though it's not an overwhelming star. There aren't a ton of impact players on this defense, with Brade being picked for his efforts more in the charted game than the full season. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: defense!]

Base set: Maryland is either a 4-2-5 or a 4-3-4, depending on the offense's personnel. Since Michigan uses two TEs a lot, I will show you the 4-3 look first. Generally it involves lining the SLB up like an end so you get a Michigan-style 5-2 front: 

However it can also look more like a proper 4-3: 

And here's their 4-2-5 look which has been prominent against other teams on the schedule this year: 

Man or zone coverage: Just like last year, Maryland is mostly in the zone bucket. They play a lot of Cover 2 and Cover 3, with your occasional man snaps getting peppered in. Their eight man zone drops are also still in the arsenal (see below in the pressure section), though not as many as last season. As a whole, this is more of a zone defense than a man defense. 

Pressure: Last season Maryland stood out as the only team on the schedule who regularly rushed just three players, doing so on a whopping 36% of snaps in the game I charted against SMU. This year they aren't doing it to the same degree, but at 9.7% snaps, they are still the highest rush three team on the schedule to date. On the flip side, their blitz percentage (rushing more than four) of 32% was a bit higher than last year's 21%, perhaps reflecting increased aggression due to a less talented secondary. However, we should be clear that those five man rushes were in a number of cases merely rushing the five they lined up on the DL, when playing in their base 4-3, akin to a 5-2 front, so not exactly the same as a true blitz. 

Dangerman: Reiterating what I said in the personnel section, today's Dangerman is not necessarily a Dangerman in the way we typically use the term, a player who is a star standout on his way to All-B1G and possibly the NFL. I didn't feel that way about any of the players that I watched for Maryland's defense against Ohio State and the PFF grades are largely in that 60-70 "eh" range, so I went with the player I thought was the best against OSU, S Beau Brade. Funny enough, I picked him as the Dangerman last year for the same reasons, so I guess I only chart the best Beau Brade games. 

Brade, a senior safety, had a lot of good moments against the Buckeyes and is one of the higher graded defenders on Maryland per PFF. He was sharp in pass coverage, identifying receivers in his zone and making plays on the ball: 

And another: 

Maryland is not the best tackling defense, but I liked how Brade finished off plays when his teammates in front of him missed tackles: 

In the run game he had a few good moments, but coming down here to pop Chip Trayanum in the back and just stop his momentum short of the sticks was a highlight: 

It wasn't flashy, no highlight reel interception or anything, but Brade was reliable and regularly making plays to help slow down the Buckeye offense, which earns him today's Dangerman designation. 

 

Overview 

No team's side of the ball I've charted this season has a more confusing collection of results than Maryland's defense, with a handful of games that indicate a pretty good defense and an equally large handful of games that indicate a godawful defense. The game I charted against Ohio State was quite strong, a performance good enough to win (it was the offense's penchant for disastrous turnovers that did them in). They also easily muzzled teams like Indiana early in the season and Nebraska last week. On the other hand, there was a three week stretch where the QBs Luke Altmyer, Brendan Sullivan, and Drew Allar combined to eviscerate their pass defense. Odd. 

I don't have an answer for what exactly the reason for this divergence in outcomes is. The PFF grades are pretty positive and seem to generally indicate that they believe the good results are more prevalent than the bad ones. Likewise, SP+ is a fan of this Maryland defense (ranking it 24th). Since Ohio State is one of their best performances, most of the clips I show you will also be operating under the assumption that Maryland's defense is more on the strong end of the spectrum. If Saturday doesn't turn out that way, then it's only good news for Michigan. 

The run defense was the more impressive dimension of the defense in the OSU game and in fact, Ohio State was Maryland's best rush defense performance of the conference season. No conference opponent was held to a lower YPC clip (sack-adjusted) than Ohio State and the tape was loaded with examples why. Explosives were nowhere to be found (some of that is TreVeyon Henderson not being healthy) and there was minimal running room for two talented backs in Miyan Williams and Chip Trayanum. I came away impressed (at least, above my low expectations) on the defensive tackles: 

When OSU tried to run out in space, Maryland was well prepared to key in and take that away as well. Kellan Wyatt takes on two blockers and there's room for the LB and DB level to shoot down and make a stop: 

The Buckeyes did grind out the occasional running chunk gain, but they were overall few and far between: 

If there were issues on the ground, they tended to be from the second level, where LBs had some trouble identifying the holes. While the DL stood tall repeatedly against the Ohio State OL, sometimes the gaps the LBs stuck their nose in were incorrect, or the routes they took to the ball were wrong: 

That's LB Jaishawn Barham (#1) running through the wrong gap, while Ruben Hyppolite II is stuck behind the play. The DTs didn't get tossed around too often, but when they did, it was a coin flip whether they got the support. I like Barham and think he's talented, but he's not a superstar yet and Hyppolite is pretty iffy. If Michigan can get some wins up front, like Ohio State couldn't, taking advantage of the LBs is the path to getting to a more respectable rushing clips. 

The pass defense is probably the weaker dimension for Maryland, although against Ohio State it mostly manifested as "uh oh, we can't cover Marvin Harrison Jr.". No one really can, but a team that lost two corners to the NFL Draft is not high on the list of teams who can do the best job of doing so. They held him in check pretty well early on but the quality of coverage deteriorated as the game went along and went to moments like this: 

When in position, the DBs generally did a good job defending and making plays on the ball but the bigger issue were sizable coverage busts like the one above. Or like this: 

As for the personnel, I don't have too many notes on the DBs. They were mostly fine, other than that Corey Coley Jr. may be a player Michigan could target, depending on how much he sees the field. If you wanted proof of the 8-man drops, here you go: 

It seemed to catch McCord off guard, with that being his first snap against it. They didn't flash it enough to get a big sample of how effective it was, but it did ruffle some feathers with Michigan last season, so make of that what you will. Finally, on the pass rush, it had a decent day against Ohio State, but I don't see any real NFL caliber pass rushers the way Purdue and PSU have had. PFF's team pass rush grade for Maryland is near the middle of the country and that jibes with what I saw. They had a few sacks, including this one: 

Barham the LB is blitzing there and I thought he was pretty good in that role. None of the DL jumped out as superb organic rushers but they all had their moments here and there. On the interior, DT Tommy Akingbesote was probably Maryland's best passrusher, while the EDGEs were all about as good as each other. If they want to get sacks, they're better off blitzing from the second level, be it Barham like the above or a DB like S Dante Trader Jr. (#12) below: 

I don't anticipate a ton of trouble for Michigan's OL protecting JJ McCarthy, given the clips I showed last week of PSU where Drew Allar had all day to throw consistently, but the Terps will probably get home here and there when they blitz. 

 

What does this mean for Michigan? 

I feel like this is the case every year, but Maryland is always the opponent I have the least to say about. They are never bad enough that I can use this space to dunk on them repeatedly, but they are also never good enough that I am highlighting lots of great players and things Michigan should be worried about. This defense in particular is the most "meh" I've charted all season. They seem... fine. Their coverage had its moments against OSU, but wasn't smothering. Their run defense was largely quite good, but has been less good in other games. They notched a few sacks but don't pose the consistent threats to slow down Drew Allar. Last year Michigan had a bit of trouble with the 8 man zones that Maryland tossed at them, with JJ McCarthy showing some of his inexperience at the time. That's less of a concern now. Michigan will probably move the ball pretty easily because this defense lacks difference makers, but Maryland is okay enough that it may not be a total laugher.